Tag Archives: ELE 8

Yesterday, the Grade 4 classes were treated to an amazing day at Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site. We spent the day re-enacting the fur trade! Each class played a different part in the story. We were the Piikani First Nation, and our guide took us through the forest along the river to teach us what life was like during the fur trade for this group. Other classes represented the Cree First Nation, the Metis, the Hudson Bay Company, and the NorthWest Company. We all met at the end of our day for trading. It was a fantastic way to gain a deeper understanding of this important time in Alberta’s history! Please check out your child’s digital portfolio for their reflection on this fabulous field trip.

In Science, we’ve learned lots of ways to reduce waste. We visited the landfill this week, and we were amazed at the amount of trash thrown away by the people of central Alberta. Did you know the Red Deer Landfill takes in enough garbage EVERY DAY to fill 35 classrooms to the top? Our trash from Blackfalds ends up at that landfill, so we are thinking of ways to be responsible about our waste. You can check out your child’s 5R’s slideshow on Google Drive to see some of the great ideas they have for waste reduction.

One of the ways we work to reduce waste in our classroom is to compost our fruit and vegetable scraps. We have a worm bin in 4Wa, and every week we feed scraps to our worms to avoid throwing away so much at lunchtime. Today, we had a chance to get up-close and personal with our little wriggler friends! Some of us were a little uncomfortable, but mostly we were fascinated by the little compost-makers. Check out the pictures of our close encounters…

In March our class headed to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller for a memorable day of learning and adventure. Each student created a fossil cast in the Paleo Lab that we brought back to school. Last week, we painted our casts to create a souvenir that we can treasure forever. They are beautiful, don’t you think?

Grade 4’s… please comment below to describe your favorite part of the day. Be descriptive and use at least 3 sentences in your comment!

The week before Christmas we had a special “review” class in Science. We looked back at the parts of the landfill, and then we built our own. (Cells, leachate, daily cover, and even topsoil!) We finished off by DEVOURING it… Suddenly Science was everyone’s favorite subject!

For the past several weeks in Science, we have been learning all about Waste and Our World. We’ve learned all sorts of great things about how to better manage our waste and how to keep our world greener. Still, there were a lot of students who were stumped by recycling. They knew that they are supposed to put things in the blue bin, but thought that those items just got rinsed out and reused again right away. UNTIL TODAY.

Mr. Overacker is the owner of a plastic recycling company in Lacombe. He gave us the gift of his time and expertise this afternoon, and brought in some materials to help us understand better what recycling really means. We learned that the plastic from oil containers is brought in, chopped into little bits, and washed. It is sent far away (to Ontario or even Shanghai) to complete its transformation into new plastic deck boards! What a great example of recycling something that would otherwise end up in the landfill.

Now we have seen why recycling is so important, and we know a lot more about it. Science sure is cool!

In Grade 4 we have spent the last month or so learning about an author’s purpose for writing. We’ve learned all about P – I – E! (That means Persuade, Inform, or Entertain) After enjoying listening to lots of books and discussing the author’s purpose, we have delved a little deeper into persuasive writing.

While we are busy working on a fantastic persuasive essay, we have also been practicing our convincing skills in class. We have worked in partners to practice persuading our moms and dads to stay up late or get a new iPod (sorry, parents!) and have also tried out debating issues that are current for Grade 4 students. Below are some pictures of us in our heated debates!

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You can check out our progress in Persuasive Writing by checking out your child’s project on Google Drive. Please feel free to comment on this blog post or on their assignment!